ears go by, with the coral growing up all round her."

"Do you think it will?"

"Think, sir? Why, it grows up just like as if it was so much moss in a
wood."

"Then you are ready to make up your mind to be here for years to come?"

"Yes, sir; aren't you?"

The doctor shrugged his shoulders.

"We couldn't be better off, sir. Now, just you wait a bit, sir, and
you'll see something. Directly that young chap's well enough, we shan't
be able to hold him. He'll be 'bout half mad with delight. He won't
want to go away--not for a long time, at all events."

"Well, we shall see," said the doctor. "Now let's go below."

"Right, sir. I wouldn't do anything till you come."

They began a tour of inspection at once, making their way as far down as
they could, to find that the lower hold was eight or ten feet deep in
water, which covered the heavy cargo of railway iron, machinery, casks,
and miscellaneous goods.

"'Bout high water now, sir," said the old sailor. "It'll sink a good
deal when the tide's out. We seem to have come on at high water."

"Would it be possible to stop it out, and in the course of time pump the
vessel clear?"

"Not if we'd got fifty steam pumps, sir: that water'll flow in and out
and be always sweet--I mean salt--for she's got plates below there
ripped off like sheets of writing paper. But the water won't hurt us,
and the stores such as we want are all above it. There's nothing to
mind there."

The doctor nodded in acquiescence, and they went on with their search,
to find more and more how well they were provided for, old Bostock
chuckling again and again as each advantage came home to him.

"I don't believe no shipwrecked chaps was ever so well off before. Why,
it's wonderful how little the _Susan's_ hurt. Look at the store of
coals we've got, and at the cook's galley all ready for cooking a
chicken--if we had one--or a mutton chop, if the last two sheep hadn't
been drowned and washed away along with the cow. Now, that was bad
luck, sir. Drop o' milk'd been a fine thing for that there boy if I
could ha' squeezed it out. I never did try to milk, sir, but I'd ha'
tried. Don't suppose it would ha' been so very hard, if the old cow
would ha' stood still. Milk would be a fine thing for him, wouldn't
it?"

"Yes, excellent," said the doctor, with a peculiar smile; "but we have
no cow, Bostock."

"Tchah! Of course not, sir," said the old sailor, giving himself a slap
on the mout